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Weebles Wobble

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Dave Richards

Dave Richards

Jedi Knight
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So I’m driving along fine the other evening after 200 miles, or so, this summer, and all of a sudden, or mostly all of a sudden, it’s like I’m driving on a bent rim, or scuttle shake, only not at the normal speed of 65MPH, but at all speeds

Nothing unusual happened, no big bumps, no notorious potholes, it just starts this rhythmic shaking.

I’m going to but it up tonight, or tomorrow, to see if anything has worked itself loose, or come undone.

The wheels and hubs are in excellent condition. I didn’t notice any wheel weights, but maybe one has come loose.

Any thoughts, or ideas?
 
While it's jacked up check each wheel for obvious loosness or runout.

The rear hub bolts/nuts are obviously very critical. Check them carefully & torque to 40 lb/ft. The shouldered nuts "should" be self locking. If in doubt, use some Blue Loctite.

Bad front shocks will let the front wheels bounce in spite of near perfect balance.

"Something" is very wrong.
D
 
Thanks Dave, I'll make sure to check them, does the sudden-ness point more to one thing than another?
 
dar100 said:
Thanks Dave, I'll make sure to check them, does the sudden-ness point more to one thing than another?
Click to expand...
That's what really worries me. If you are about to lose a wheel, it's very serious. If the nuts that hold the splined hub to the rear drum come off, well, you can imagine what losing a wheel does.

More gradual problems are usually less serious.

The shot in the dark on the U joints is very valid also. If a U joint fails & the drive shaft comes up through the floor, WOW.
D
 
Greetings all, as I welcome myself back...I've been away first on vacation for a few weeks and then way too busy (being punished) for leaving work. I'm finally finding time to be on-line and tinkering with the Healey.

First and foremost was this wobbling thing. Well, it turns out to be a simple thing: one of the rear tires was coming apart! It wasn't too hard to figure out was I started looking things over.

So it's 4 new tires and while I'm at it, I thought I would send the wheels down to Hendrix Wire Wheel to have them true the wheels and put new tires on. Has anyone done this? That is, send them existing wheels to have them worked on. It's one of their advertised services.
 
Hi Dave,
Hope you enjoyed your vacation. I bought tires from Tire Rack and had them ship the tires directly to Hendrix. I think if you go to Tire Rack from their banner add here, Basil gets a finders fee of sorts.
 
Thanks for the tip Greg, I'd noticed the price difference between the two, so I'm glad you pointed that out, it'll save close to $100.
 
Glad you found your problem with the tire Dave, and thankfully without incident. What kind of tire damage specifically? Is it something we all could see and possibly prevent?

Before you discovered your problem was the tire, I was going to add "check your rear leaf spring attaching points", as they tend to undo without provocation as you mentioned.

What kind/brand of tire are you purchasing?
 
Johnny said:
What kind of tire damage specifically? Is it something we all could see and possibly prevent?
Click to expand...
It is usually a problem of tread/belt separation. Hard to detect by inspection. A dynamic tire balancer which uses roller pressure against the tread will show the problem quickly but not all shops have this type of balancer.

I had the problem on another car, name brand tires. The tire shop guy ran along side the car as I drove at very low speed. He could see the tread moving in relation to the tire carcass as the tire rolled along under the car weight. The tread kind of gathering up into a lump as the tire rotated. They replaced the tire which was about three years old.

It happened on another tire about three months later. This time I replaced the tires with a different brand.

It doesn't happen too often on newer tires, but is quite prevalent on older tires on which the rubber has age hardened.
D
 
You are right Dave, as usual. The tires are old, I had planned on replacing them next season, but they've moved up in priority!
 
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